Get Used to It
by MaraudingMuggle
Summary: James and Lily in the beginning of their sixth year at Hogwarts. This is my take on how the two of them finally became friends. "We're mates, Evans. Get used to it." Jily. Please R&R! This should be a three-shot. T for slight swearing at times. Disclaimer: I do not own anything!
1. The Truce

**A/N: Hello! Sorry it's been a bit of a while since I've posted something-times have been tough, ladies and gents. I decided that I wanted to put together a three-shot of James and Lily finally becoming friends. It's got some gaps because I don't want to keep you from having your own ideas and opinions of what their friendship was like. Let me know if you like it at all... or if you don't. Anything really. I hope you enjoy it, though. Thanks!**

* * *

There was no doubt that the Hogwarts curriculum got harder as each year passed, but it seemed that instead of increasing in difficulty at the steady pace it was supposed to, sixth year had increased tenfold. Lily wondered if maybe it hadn't gotten as tough as she thought it had, because it seemed that it was just her and some seventh years who were always left in the common room late at night. Lily sunk her fingers into her hair and started to massage her temples. She was lonely, stressed, and _so damn tired._ She never realized before how much she really relied on her friendship with Severus. It wasn't that she didn't get along with her dorm mates, but she just wasn't close with them. They were plenty cordial and they tried to include her, but it was just awkward. In the past they had all made their feelings about Snape very clear and despite their efforts to not seem smug, she knew that they were all thinking about how they had been right. Mary had put in the most effort of them all-she never said a word about Snape to Lily and tried to dissuade her friends from doing so, but Lily could tell that she felt the same way about him that the others did. And, she feared, Mary didn't seem nearly as inviting as she had at the start of the year before Mulciber and his group of friends targeted Mary. It was unlikely that Mary would want any association with Lily now.

Thinking hard on her own friendship situation, though, Lily was not the only one who seemed to be having issues. The Marauders-whom she previously thought above any of the petty friendship issues it seemed that all students experienced-were divided. More than once she had observed James Potter leaving the breakfast table just as soon as Sirius Black had arrived. And sometimes, she saw James creeping down the boys dorm staircase with a blanket that she suspected he meant to sleep on the couch with. The rumors were all varied concerning what was actually going on. Some of the gossip was just plain stupid. Some first years were whispering that they heard that Sirius had rejected James when he told him he loved him and that that was the cause of the rift. Personally, Lily had not found a rumor that she agreed with completely. As far she could discern from the scuttlebutt, though, Sirius Black had done something very bad, but James stopped it from happening. What she still didn't have an answer for was why James seemed to be so upset about it. All of the other Marauders had made up from what she could tell. It just didn't make any sense. Especially since James and Sirius had always been the closest out of all of them. So caught up in her thoughts was she, that Lily didn't notice James coming down the stairs until he sunk down onto the couch next to her chair. He was in his pajamas with a snitch pattern blanket in his lap.

"Hey, Evans," He smiled as he talked to her, but it didn't match his tone. He pretty much had huffed out her name, like he was too tired to put much effort into even pretending that he was slightly okay.

She closed her transfiguration textbook and dropped it by her feet. "Hey, Potter. What are you doing down here? Causing trouble, no doubt?"

"Very funny, Evans. Like you don't already know," he let out a derisive laugh and then gave her an apologetic expression. "Sorry. Didn't mean to lash out."

"'s fine." Lily curled her legs up closer to her in the chair and took care to tuck her own blanket under her feet. She picked at her cuticles.

"What about you, though? Shouldn't you be getting some rest?" James had collapsed into the soft cushioning of the couch. His bare feet were crossed at the ankles and stretched out in front of him. His arms were crossed over the ratty band t-shirt he wore with his red plaid pants. He wasn't looking at Lily, his gaze focused on the fire in front of him.

"I'm doing some homework." At that, his attention turned back to her. His eyes roved over her, looking for whatever textbook she might have and then it landed on the textbook at her feet. He raised his eyebrows at that.

"That essay isn't due for another week."

"I struggle with transfiguration. Figured I might as well get a head start." James' gaze narrowed at her, his eyes more closely inspecting her now, and she felt a bit awkward under the attention. "What?" she asked. He took in the bags under her eyes, the protective ball she had curled into, the defeat laced in her tone, and he felt his heart well for her. They both knew it was a weak excuse, Lily wasn't terrible in any of her classes and if she were truly having issues-she would have gone to speak with McGonagall instead of staring at a textbook.

He took pause before answering, "I can help if you want. I have a knack for transfiguration."

Lily played along too, "That would be great. Thanks…. James."

"James now, am I? Well that's quite an impressive step up from toerag, don't you think?" The cheek he offered was welcome and Lily smirked.

"Well I figured that if you were going to offer help, I may as well address you proper now. It'll be back to toerag soon, though. Maybe after you're done helping me, I'll even transfigure you into one." She winked at him and it tugged at the corners of his mouth. He needed this. That easy banter she brought to the table. They had never been close, the two of them, but they had spent some time together over the years. Last year, before OWLs, the two of them led the giant Gryffindor house study session. He tutored transfiguration and she handled potions and charms. Remus had taken over defense and they had all collaborated in an effort to have everyone pass. They had gotten into their fair share of spats over the years, but from what he could tell-neither one of them had ever hated the other despite what everyone was saying.

"What does a toerag even look like?" James crinkled his nose trying to think of what a toerag would resemble. Would it smell like feet? Probably.

Lily opened her mouth to respond, but closed it half a second later. Her eyes glistened as she responded, "You."

James glared at her, but couldn't fight the smile that begged to appear on his face. "I should have seen that coming, I suppose."

"I don't blame you," Lily said cheekily. "You have terrible vision." She then silently summoned his glasses off of his face. He hadn't even noticed her pulling her wand out.

"Hey!" He lunged his upper body forward to try and snatch his glasses out of the air, but even with his skills in chasing, he was incredibly blind without the aid of his specs. He couldn't see where they were.

Lily laughed and tossed them onto his lap, "Sorry. Couldn't resist."

A crooked grin overtook James face and he let out a dramatic sigh, leaned his head back and closed his eyes, "Couldn't resist me, more like." He immediately lifted his head and opened his eyes to catch her reaction.

"Shut it, Potter." Her legs were loosened from the ball she had formed of herself and hung over the edge of the seat. Her toes peaked out from under the blanket even after she had thrown the blanket over her legs and James noticed that she had painted them a reddish purple color.

"Ah, being a toerag wouldn't be the worst," he said, "as long as I got to clean pretty toes like those. Nice color, Evans."

Lily blushed a little when she realized what he was talking about, but she didn't let it affect her composure. "Thanks, James. I can do yours for you if you want. The bottle is just upstairs."

"I'll pass for now, but thanks. I appreciate the offer." James paused slightly, "You wouldn't want to go near my feet, though. Remus swears they smell worse than Pete's do. Probably because of my quidditch trainers."

"Thanks for that. Now my mind will be clouded with mental images of your stinky clodhoppers," Lily's face scrunched up.

"You're very welcome," James smiled. They lapsed into a momentary silence before Lily broke it.

"You could always charm them, you know?"

"What? Charm my feet? No thanks," James looked thoroughly confused by the suggestion and Lily let out a small laugh.

"Not your feet. The shoes, dipshit. Summon them for me-I'll fix 'em up for you. I had to do the same thing for Mare a while ago." Lily looked at him expectantly and not seeing any reason to reject her kindness, he pulled his wand from his pants pocket and flicked it toward the boys stairs.

The shoes floated lazily down from the dormitory, "Oh Agrippa's sake, James! Did you think it was your job to bloody fumigate the dorms or something?" James laughed at Lily's expression and watched with interest as she charmed his shoes. When she was done, she flicked her wand at the air and a pleasant scent burst out and filled the room.

"Nice touch. Thanks, Lily."

She nodded and fell to the easy silence. It was several minutes before James spoke.

"So why have you still not gone up to sleep? Got a monster hiding under your bed or something?" He said it jokingly, but Lily's response didn't have the usual playful touch to it.

"More like in my head." It seemed as though she had replied without thought and James' eyebrow creased.

"Huh?"

"Oh, sorry." Lily's cheeks blossomed with pink. "I didn't mean-I uh-that's not to say that I-"

"Lily," James frowned and leaned towards her, "what's bothering you?"

Lily sat up straight in her chair, her legs twisting to dangle off the front of the chair as appropriate chair stature would require. "Nothing. I'm good."

"Ah," he spoke, "so you're just going to outright lie to me? Good to know."

"It's not any of your business!" Lily snapped coldly at him and he retracted back again the couch cushions.

The silence that they had been experiencing periodically returned now, far more cold and awkward. Lily sat rigidly in her armchair, her eyes blazing like the fire she stared into and James was leaning into the back of the couch, his face looking off to the side, an icy expression blanketing his features. They allowed the silence for five minutes or so, both of them trying to stay still, but fidgeting uncomfortably at different intervals.

Finally, Lily conceded and muttered, "Sorry."

James took his time responding, mulling carefully over the words before laying them on the table, "I was just trying to help. I'm not stupid, Lily. It's pretty obvious you've been having a rough go. I just thought I would offer some relief. I'm not as terrible a person as you may think I am."

"I don't think you're terrible. And I've been having a rough go? You're one to talk. Do _you_ need some relief?" She looked at him quizzically and he felt her eyes trying to penetrate his own.

"No." The silence returned and James shattered it once more, "So neither one of us talks about what we don't want to, then? Work for you?"

"Dandily." She smiled, "Does this mean we are friends now or something cheesy like that?"

"I don't see a reason why we shouldn't or couldn't be." He fidgeted with his glasses, not wanting to risk ruining the olive branch she was offering.

"Alright then," she extended her hand to James, "Friends."


	2. Croissants

The next week passed in a blur. It became some kind of routine between James and Lily that one of them would wait for the other somewhere in the common room and they would work on homework for each other. James would help with transfiguration and defense while Lily assisted with potions and charms, neither of them really needing the help, but accepting the other's expertise gratefully. Both of their marks were improving greatly and the professors all seemed to notice the strange new alliance between the two with trepidation. For all they knew, this might be some grand prank by the marauders to catch them off guard.

James was still sleeping on the couch in the common room and Lily was still trying to avoid her roommates as much as possible. For both parties, the situations were still too awkward. Lily and James had taken to eating their meals together and pairing up in class. James would still spend time with Remus and Peter, but wherever Sirius was involved, James was off with Lily. It had become a rumor around Hogwarts that the two were now an item.

The morning after they first agreed on friendship was weird. They had gone off to sleep soon after the decision was made and had not really taken any time to discuss the setup. That's why James had decided to skip out on breakfast. Lily had waited around the common room for him for a bit, but eventually given up and went down alone. She had kept an eye on the doors to the Great Hall and noticing as she was getting ready to go to class that he had never shown, she had nabbed him a little something. After living with him for six years, she had realized that his favorite breakfast food was a buttered croissant, so that's what she took. Lily wrapped it up in a napkin for him and went into the charms classroom. He stepped in not long after her and she waved him over to her. His eyebrow cocked in curiosity, she presented the croissant to him. It was still warm thanks to the heating charm she had placed on it. James inspected it almost in awe-eternally grateful for food-and then sat in the seat next to her with no protest from either one of them.

* * *

James came into the common room right after quidditch practice and looked around for Lily. It was Thursday which meant that she didn't have any club meetings nor prefect duties to take care of, and he almost didn't see her if not for the red hair that was visible by the windows. He walked over to the inlaid window seat and settled next to her. Lily's face scrunched up and she didn't lift her eyes from her book as she spoke.

"I thought we fixed the smelliness a week ago, James." When she finished speaking, she did lift her face to catch his reaction and he could see her teasing smile.

"Maybe I just wanted you to charm me again, Lily. A bloke can't seem to get enough," James winked. Lily leaned over and knocked his arm with her wrist and stuck her tongue out at him. One of the most amusing parts of becoming Lily's friend, at least in James' eyes, was seeing how much of a child she was. She loved to stick her tongue out and make silly faces, he often found that when they were walking in silence that she would choose to fill it with upbeat songs that she could do no justice to, and would spin and dance around wherever she went.

For Lily, however, it was the opposite. She was surprised by the amount of maturity that James was showing. Yes, he was still so juvenile in some of his jokes and his charming banter hadn't lessened in the slightest, but he was far more suitable for discussing controversial topics than she had previously thought. They had gotten into several long and intense debates over wizarding politics and tradition, muggleborn racism, and the war in the short time that they had become close.

Still, neither one of them spoke about Sirius or Severus.

"Luckily, I can get quite enough of your stink, James Potter. I don't know why in the world you would come up here and try to be all buddy buddy with me when you're reeking up to high heaven! Go take a shower for Merlin's sake!" Lily laughed and started to use the book she was reading to swat him away from her.

"Wow, Evans! You really know how to wound a bloke, huh? Alright, alright! Hey now-I'm going!" James put his arms up protectively and started to stumble away backwards from her and to the boys dorm. To tell the truth, he had skipped the shower in the locker rooms just to irk her. He winked when he turned to go up the stairs. She glared.

As he stood under the stream of hot water, he heard the bathroom door open and close. The person who entered the bathroom didn't speak so James awkwardly cleared his throat, "Who's there?"

"It's just Remus, Prongs."

James' tensed muscles relaxed and he spoke again, "Why the hell are you cornering me in the shower? What's up?"

The pause between James' question and Remus' response was just long enough for James to know that Remus was feeling incredibly awkward about something.

"Um. Well the situation with you and Sirius…"

James' tone grew cold, "I don't want to talk about that, Remus."

"Yeah. I, uh, figured as much… I'll let you finish your shower, then." Remus closed the door almost soundlessly behind him and James took a deep breath. If he were to be completely truthful, he would acknowledge that his anger towards Sirius was lessening slightly. He was still so _pissed_ that Sirius had ever even considered to cross the line he had. He understood to a point what was happening. Sirius had been disowned over the summer and had run away to move in with the Potters. He hadn't been the same since. He was getting vindictive and hazardous. While most of their pranks had always been for a laugh, Sirius was taking them all one step too far. It wasn't okay, and James couldn't handle it anymore. Sirius just wasn't Sirius anymore. He knew that he should be doing more to help him, but right now, he needed to step back.

James turned off the shower and slung his towel around his waist after drying off. He walked back into their dorm and knelt to start rifling through his trunk, dutifully ignoring that conversation had stopped when he entered the room and that Sirius' eyes were practically boring into him. James grabbed his pajamas and returned to the bathroom, completing his nightly routine and getting dressed before starting to go down to the common room. Just as James was pushing the door to their room open, Peter asked a question.

"James what's going on with you and Evans? The two of you are suddenly friends out of nowhere."

"We have more in common than you would think. The same sense of humor, interest in the same things… betrayal by someone you thought you knew. Maybe it's not as out of nowhere are you thought." Then James turned and left, decidedly ignoring Sirius' expression.

Lily had vacated her window seat by the time James had gotten back downstairs and part of him though that she might have gone up to bed. It was, after all, getting later into the evening and she had told him earlier that day that she was tired. He settled himself on the now vacant couch, stretching his body across it, his feet on the armrest and his head buried in one of the squashy pillows. He only had his eyes closed for a minute before he felt a thin finger poke determinedly into his cheek. His eyes opened and were greeted with the put-out expression on Lily's face.

"You weren't planning out crapping out on me, were you? I, sadly, was looking forward to sitting around with you for a bit."

Lily was wearing her own pajamas-the first time that she had changed into her own pjs to sit with James-and had her own blanket in her arms. It looked fuzzy and soft.

James sat up, "I thought you went to bed."

"Well," Lily said, "I didn't." James couldn't help but smile at the idea that Lily would prefer to spend her time with than than go to bed.

"Even with my terrible eyesight, as I recall you pointing out to me, I could actually figure out that for myself."

"Sorry," she spoke cheekily, "I guess I'm just too familiar with having to dumb things down for your behalf."

"Ah! Hitting me where it hurts!" James hissed. "Want to kiss it all better, Lily darling?"

"Only in your dreams, Potter." Lily shoved his feet off on the end of the couch and sat down facing him. Their legs ran parallel to one another, their backs resting against the opposite arm rests.

"Well I best be getting back to sleep, then."

She hit him repeatedly with a pillow.

* * *

At breakfast the next morning, Lily was waiting at the end of the table for James to come down, calmly sipping her pumpkin juice, when Remus sat down next her. The two of them had gotten on well in the past but were never more than prefects together. He made good enough conversation, but they never became friends. Lily raised her eyebrows at his appearance.

"Good morning, Lily," Remus started to fill his plate with sausages and other food.

"Remus?"

He looked up at her, "Yeah?"

Lily shifted in her seat, "Why are you sitting here?"

Remus stopped piling food onto his plate and locked his eyes onto Lily's without speaking any further. He seemed to be searching her eyes for answers and Lily tried to not blink under his gaze.

"Lily… what are you doing?" The redhead glanced down confusedly at her plate, thinking maybe she had put her hand in her oatmeal or something. She hadn't.

"What?"

"What are you doing?" Remus clarified, "With James."

"I'm just waiting for him to come down to eat, Remus. I don't understand what the problem is," she released a few awkward giggles.

"There's no _problem,_ Lily. And that, in some strange way, _is_ the problem. I don't understand what you're trying to gain from stringing him along like this." Remus looked truly perplexed, but Lily didn't care. Just what exactly was he trying to accuse her of?

"I'm not trying to _gain_ something from him, Remus. And if I were you, I would keep oriented to business that's actually yours to deal with," Lily stabbed her spoon into her bowl of oatmeal with far more aggression than necessary.

"I'm not trying to upset you-"

"And you're doing a great job of that, aren't you? Did you even consider that maybe all I was doing was being his friend? Pull your head out of your arse and redirect your eyes to something that concerns you. I don't need to have you poking your nose into my own damn business. James is my friend, too, Remus. Leave it be." Lily roughly pulled herself out of her seat and snatched up her books. She didn't let Remus get in one more word before she was out in the hallway.

James brought her a croissant that morning.

 **A/N: I'm so glad that you guys like what I'm doing with this! I worked really hard on it, and my friend Alex betaed for me. I'm really pleased with this fic. I feel like in it I finally grasped my mental images of James and Lily. Anyway, R &R and I'll love you forever!**


	3. Mates

A month had passed since that first night in the common room, and James and Lily were growing closer everyday. It had gotten to the point where Lily would take her studying down to James' quidditch practices and James would meet Lily in the library to work on homework with her. It was at at one of these library study sessions that Lily finally broached the Sirius subject.

Lily wasn't the only who noticed that James' anger towards Sirius was dwindling everyday. He still wasn't talking to Sirius, but the glares and cold shoulder had become more subdued-even if he still refused to sleep in the dorm. She couldn't help but wonder how much longer they would drag their indifference on for, and was starting to really get frustrated with the whole phenomenon.

Lily's quill hadn't been scratching against her parchment for a solid minute when James looked up and was surprised to find Lily staring right at him. "Lils?"

Lily straightened in her chair, her quill set on the table, and her arms crossed. "I know we agreed," she started off, "that we wouldn't talk about what we didn't want to, but I think it's time we did." James had tensed at her first words and he was refusing to make eye contact. "James, he's one of your best friends. You don't just let something like that go without a fight."

"He _was_ one of my best friends, Lily. Not anymore. And quite frankly, I don't see why I should have to share a thing about what's going on with me when you aren't talking about your own shit."

"Fine. I'll share too, then. That's how important this is to me." James looked back up at Lily, a perfect picture of shock.

"You'll what?"

"I'll share. Do you need me to go first, or do you have balls enough to take the lead?" Lily glared at him more for effect rather than out of true feelings.

James returned her heated gaze with one of his own and Lily did her best not to quirk a smile at how utterly ridiculous about this they were being.

"I can go first, Evans. I'm not a coward. I'm a Gryffindor!" James impersonated roaring like a lion, trying to deflect from the conversation with humor.

"Yeah lion boy, you are. Now stop stalling and just spit it out."

James raked his hand through his hair twice before he finally started to talk, "Look, Evans… It's not my place to give you the tell all about Sirius' shit, okay? But he crossed the line. He's been dancing it for a while-taking things a little too far, pushing the boundaries-he just got out of control. He did something bad. Like really _really_ bad. I can't get past it. He almost ruined two people's lives. He almost ruined fucking everything. And I know that I should forgive him-he's endured the cold shoulder long enough-and that I should be there for him because this all started due to things going to hell in his life, but I don't know… I just can't look him in the eye. I never would have believed that he would have done something like that. Never."

Lily listened patiently while James talked about Sirius and what had happened. After he finished his monologue, Lily let the words roll around her head for a bit before beginning to speak, "I still think that you should talk to him, James. Hear him out at least. You don't have to make any promises to forgive him, but I think that after five or six years of friendship that you owe him that much."

"I hear you, but how am I supposed to do that when I can't _look_ at him, Lily? That's the issue. I can't even _look_ at him."

"You're going to have to, James." Lily reached across the table and placed her hand on top of the back of his. He flipped his hand to be palm up and then intertwined their fingers.

They shared a heavy silence for a moment before James questioned, "Do I get to hear your tale now, Princess?" His attempt to bring humor back into the conversation was awkward, but made Lily smile nonetheless.

"It's not all that interesting, really. And you know most of it already," Lily took a breath. "I knew Snape before I came to Hogwarts. He lives very near me and once when I was younger he saw me practicing magic. He told me all about the magic of Hogwarts and this world and just… he gave me an identity of sorts. I knew who I was because of him. That was hard to let go of. And I know that he changed, and I know that I stuck around longer than I should have with him, but I couldn't really help it. He was still Sev in some ways. He still had the shitty homelife and the shared history. I don't know. I guess it was all a bit stupid on my part. Everyone knew where he was headed far before I even acknowledged it. I was blind to what I didn't want to."

James squeezed Lily's hand. "You're not stupid and you're not blind. If anyone here is blind it's me. Remember?" James used his free hand to point at his glasses.

Lily laughed loudly at James' stupid joke, her body doubling over and her lungs struggling to fill with air. He smiled at her and she returned it before reaching across the table to jab him in the stomach with her finger.

"Go talk to Black, you prat."

James sighed and looking back at Lily with a new gleam in his eyes. He immediately donned a puppy-dog expression and jutted his lower lip out.

"What? Is that supposed to convince me? I thought we agreed that I'm the one with all the charms."

"Just come with me. Please? You don't have to stay, probably shouldn't, actually, but I just don't want to chicken out."

Lily gasped playfully, "James Potter chicken out? Never! He's a _true_ Gryffindor!"

James dropped all pretenses of joking and looked seriously at the girl across from him, "Lily, I'm not kidding 'round. I don't think I can do it alone."

Lily nodded and started to pack up her things, leaving James to put back any textbooks they borrowed for their homework. The walk to Gryffindor Tower was relatively silent save for the chatting of other students and the sound of the wind rustling leaves and shaking branches outside. They found Sirius sitting in Lily's usual alcove, for once alone. Remus and Pete were probably both up in the dorm. James made a slow approach to his old friend, only propelled ahead by Lily inching closer and closer to him from behind. When they got into the range of two steps away, Lily forcefully shoved James forward into Sirius' line of sight.

"James…" Sirius looked up as soon at the shadow and quiet cursing of his best friend surrounded him. He was sure that he sounded like he was in shock, but in all practicality, he was. The two of them hadn't spoken in weeks. Even for full moons, James did his best to not engage with his dog companion.

"Uh, hey…" James glanced behind him almost seeming to check to make sure that he had Lily's support, but she was gone now. James bolstered his confidence and took the chair across from Sirius and stared at his friend. "We should talk, Pads."

* * *

The next morning when Lily was at breakfast, she kept her eyes trained on the pages of whatever book she was reading. She hadn't gone down to the common room last night, instead staying in her room. She didn't want to embarrass herself if James wasn't down there-why would he be? There was no doubt in Lily's mind that he would make up with Sirius and they would be just fine. That meant that she never saw James wait down there for her despite having a bed to sleep in again.

She was in the midst of mixing the cinnamon into her oatmeal when she felt someone sit close to her on the bench and she looked to her left to see Sirius Black, happier than he had looked in two months, smiling at her. His eyes moved away from her face and to something behind her. Lily tilted her head back and was met with James standing above her, disapproval written all over his face.

"Oatmeal? Really? That's so _boring_ , Lily." James shoved the bowl forwards, the oatmeal sloshing over the sides from the force of the movement and onto the table. He ignored it, leaving Remus, who had settled in with Peter across from them, to wipe it up. "Have a croissant." James tossed one to her that she deftly caught. Lily looked down at her lap and tried to hide the smile that she couldn't seem to vanish.

James sat down next her and whispered, "We're mates, Evans. Get used to it."

 **A/N: Well, there you have it. That's my last installment of this. I don't know how much I liked the ending of this chapter, but oh well. I think it works well enough. What do you think? Thanks for reading this. I would really really appreciate it if you would leave me a review. Thanks!**


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